Jinjin Sun/YH

On Tues., Feb. 12, 2008, Harvard astonished the academic world when its Faculty of Arts and Sciences unanimously voted for a mandate that would require all faculty members to make their scholarly articles available for free online. Then in September 2009, a consortium of five elite universities, including Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, MIT, and Berkeley, declared that they would commit significant resources to open-access publishing. But one name is conspicuously missing from this list: Yale.

As universities and other institutions across the world celebrate Open Access Week (beginning Mon., Oct. 19), it is an important time to reconsider Yale’s mission regarding the creation, dissemination, and preservation of knowledge in an emerging digital landscape. Despite recent efforts, Yale lags behind its peers in the adoption of open-access models that would make scholarly work available to the world.

The importance of open-access publishing becomes clear when one considers the policies and economics of traditional subscription-based academic journals. One fact that surprises many non-academics is that when professors submit an article to a journal, not only do they lose their copyright over their work, but they also rarely get paid for it. Indeed, the editing of such journals is performed by peer-reviewers who work on a volunteer basis, usually with the incentive that such work can count towards tenure. This means that subscription fees go directly to the publishers themselves, not those who actually produce the work.

Furthermore, despite the fact that costs do not go to the scholars, the subscription fees for these journals are rising at an exorbitant rate. Although Yale’s library system provides us with significant resources, many journals charge thousands of dollars for a yearly subscription fee, some even reaching over 20,000 dollars. For example, the average price for an academic journal from the American Chemical Society in 2008 was 13,767 dollars per title, according to findings by the University of California.

The rising cost of these journals creates a considerable strain for the acquisitions departments of libraries that are already under financial pressure. Due to the recession, some libraries have been forced to cut their number of subscriptions, causing publishers to charge even higher prices in order to recoup costs. Thus, researchers who are affiliated with universities with smaller resources increasingly suffer when denied access to materials critical to their work.

But the effect is even greater for those who exist outside of institutional resources. Patients who seek to understand the complexities of an illness are routinely unable to access the articles that their doctors are reading. Doctors and researchers in developing countries cannot access the latest research on medical treatments that could potentially save the lives of millions.

Even we as students are affected by this. Though we belong to an institution with significant resources, most of us have had the experience of finding an important article online, only to find out that it comes with a price tag. And after graduation, most of these resources, even ones as basic as the Oxford English Dictionary, will be cut off from us—unless, of course, we’re willing to shell out 300 dollars for the yearly subscription fee.

The answer to these problems is a commitment to open-access publishing—the creation of digital repositories of information that are freely available to anyone with online capability, as well as a commitment to submit articles to peer-reviewed open access journals. These open access models are quickly becoming well-respected. For example, many open access journals, such as those from the Public Library of Science (PLS), garner wide praise in their academic circles, proving that open access does not necessarily signify lowered standards.

Harvard and other universities have already led the way by joining the five-member Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity. It’s high time for us to join this effort with equal resolve. Yale has taken some steps toward disseminating information online, such as its open courseware initiative and the creation of an Office of Digital Assets and Infrastructure, alongside smaller projects like the Law School’s digital commons repository. But we must expand these efforts; Yale must stand with its peers and take action by adopting a campus-wide open access policy. Yale’s decisions carry weight well beyond our walls, and engagement with open access could lead to significant reforms in scholarly publishing, encouraging other academic institutions to take a similar initiative. But most importantly, a commitment to open access affects real lives by furthering the University’s mission in imparting knowledge—without boundaries and without restrictions—to the world.

(Paul is a senior in Branford and a member of Yale Students for Free Culture, an advocacy group for Open Access and other information and technology policy.)